Nampota (Vihara Asna) Nampota , also called Vihara-asna (Sinhala: නම්පොත, විහාර අස්න), Nampotha, Nam Potha is an ancient Sinhalese text that lists the principal Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka. The author of the text is not known and the work is considered to be compiled after the 14th century (Wikramasinghe, 1900). The text was also one of the books used in schools attached to Buddhist temples, which must be committed to memory (Wikramasinghe, 1900).
The list was popular in the past among villagers and recited along with the Dorakada-asna and Anusasana on the concluding night of Pirith ceremonies lasting 7 days (Abeyawardana, 2004; Weerakone, 1991). It contains 267 Vihara and Devalas and out of them, 75 are located within the Central Province of the country (Abeyawardana, 2004). Original text
නමො බුද්ධාය
සගම, පස්ගම, අරත්තන, මාදන්වල, විල්වල, කඩදොර, මොරපාය, දිඹුල,
පුසුල්පිටිය, නියම්ගම්පායස්ථානය, වල්වාසගොඩ, සැලව, අරම, මැදිළිය,
දික්පිටිය, බම්පනේ, කාරියගම, දඩගමුව, අළුත් නුවර, පරණ නුවර, මාවෙල, මාකඩවර,
හිඟුල, කප…
